DPWES Letters to Industry

Street Acceptance Procedures and Bond Extension Policy

This is an update to a letter to industry 05-04
that was issued on February 15, 2005. All subdivision plans, and
site plans that are bonded with Fairfax County and that require the
Virginia Department of Transportation’s acceptance of a street or
additional right-of-way, must submit a signed copy of
VDOT’s Initial Street Acceptance Package (PDF, large file, 227K)
memorandum with any bond extension request that is submitted to Fairfax
County after July 1, 2006.

In an effort to improve Fairfax County’s bond release and VDOT’s street
acceptance processes, the county in conjunction with VDOT implemented new
street acceptance procedures on June 6, 2005. The submission and
approval of most of the paperwork that is required by the state and is
needed to obtain acceptance of the street for maintenance now occurs
early in the development process. Most of the street acceptance
paperwork is required to be submitted and approved either as part of
VDOT’s Tie-In Permit process for site plans, with the exception of
townhouse projects, or prior to the first bond extension for subdivision
plans and site plans associated with townhouse projects. The county
has routinely deferred the requirement to submit
VDOT’s Initial Street Acceptance Package (PDF, large file, 227K)
memorandum as part of the bond extension request for a little over a
year. The deferrals have been made to allow developers a sufficient
amount of time to obtain approval of the Initial Street Acceptance
Packages from VDOT.

All Initial Street Acceptance Packages should be submitted, by the
developer's engineer who designed the project, directly to VDOT's Permit
Office. For planning purposes, review and approval of the Initial
Street Acceptance Package may take up to 30 days. It is important
to note that construction of the street does not have to be complete in
order to obtain approval of the Initial Street Acceptance Package.

Details on the current street acceptance process and submission
requirements can be obtained from the
VDOT Fairfax Permits Office at 703-383-2888, TTY
711.